Brothers in Sumo –
part two
Brian Lewin
Brothers still active on the dohyo get their turn

Yokozuna Comparisons
Joe Kuroda
SFM’s most eminent historian, JK, has a crack at the impossible and tries to see who was the greatest of the tsuna wearers

Rikishi of Old
John Gunning
Takanobori – former sekiwake, former NHK man and all ’round gent

Heya Peek
Barbara Ann Klein
Kitanoumi-beya, Kitazakura, mirrors & photo bonanza

SFM Interview
John Gunning
Kazuyoshi Yoshikawa (son of the late sekiwake Takanobori) on life in sumo way back when

Sumo 101
Barbara Ann Klein
Behind every good man there stands a good woman – read and ye shall see. A departure from our regular 101 feature

Photo Bonanza
See the Hatsu Basho
plus much more through the lens of our photographers

Hatsu Basho Review
Lon Howard
Lon gives us his Hatsu Basho summary, along with the henka sightings results

Lower Division Rikishi
Mikko Mattila
Mikko Mattila covers lower division goings on in detail

Haru Basho Forecast
Pierre Wohlleben & Mark Buckton
Pierre predicts the Haru Basho banzuke while Mark highlights the ones to look out for in Osaka

Kimarite Focus
Mikko Mattila
Mikko takes us on a tour of his chosen kimarite

Minusha
John McTague
John’s unique bimonthly view of sumo news from outside the dohyo and in the restaurants!

Online Gaming
Alexander Nitschke
SFM’s own Alexander Nitschke covers the long running Hoshitori Game

Kokugi Connections
Todd Lambert
Todd’s bimonthly focus on 3 of the most interesting sumo sites today

Fan Debate
Feb's debate sees
a pair of Kiwis exchanging opinions on the honbasho going on the road

SFM Cartoons
Benny Loh & Stephen Thompson
In the third of our cartoon bonanzas, sit back and enjoy BL’s offerings and put a caption to ST’s pic to win yourselves a banzuke

Let’s Hear From You
What was it that
made you a sumo fan? A unique perspective from a sightless reader.

Readers’ Letters
See what some SFM
readers had to say since our last issue

Sumo Quiz
The Quizmaster
Answer the Qs and win yourself next basho’s banzuke.

  hon-basho should signal that a tournament needs to be moved to another city or area. This is supposed to spur the city that loses its tournament to win it back or do better if given another chance. Likewise, a change of venue is supposed to invigorate the basho through novelty and local interest in a sumo-rich area that hitherto has not hosted a basho. I presume from his argument that Dean sees some sort of rotation policy for hon-basho outside of Tokyo so that currently under-performing hosts are given a tournament only once every two years and new areas are eased into the schedule. Or does he perhaps envisage possibly also replacing some of the Tokyo basho to accommodate new hosts? Perhaps his vision could be clarified.

Dean has quite rightly mentioned the difficulty of moving hon-basho due to the connections and relationships that are needed to hold a tournament outside of Tokyo. Temporary accommodation and training facilities are needed for each of the 50-odd heya. If a rotation policy was to have hon-basho in certain cities only once every two years, this would dilute the bonds that have been formed between each heya and
its community of local supporters. This is particularly worrying in light of sumo trying to arrest the decline of its popularity and the idea of moving hon-basho being a way to stop this. Might it not actually harm the support that already exists? Would regional koenkai and community supporters such as greengrocers, food suppliers and restaurants be as inclined to generosity if they saw the heya only once every two years? Would this not also affect the support that they continue to give the heya for the rest of the year outside of the local hon-basho? Would the addition of new hosting regions, perhaps also on a two-year hosting cycle, be able to offset the drop that I anticipate in grassroots support for the heya? Structurally, support in sumo needs to be measured by more than just a bums-on-seats measure.

Furthermore, the shift of hon-basho to other reasonably populated areas or cities does not necessarily translate into audience attendance, especially younger audience members. Substituting one city with a reasonable population for a current host city will not automatically mean a better level of support, and the novelty value that may occur from a
swap is not likely to be sustained in the long term. A better level of marketing of hon-basho and catering to the needs of the fans might help these new hon-basho to establish, but might not better attention to these and other matters also improve attendance at and support of the current six hon-basho? It is for these and other reasons that I believe the change that needs to take place within ozumo is on a greater scale and requires more vision than just replicating the same procedures and systems in a new area with promising demographics.

The status quo with regard to hon-basho should remain because the quest to make sumo popular again needs to occur with a greater revamp of the sport at higher levels such as promotion, merchandising and media exposure, rather than shifting around tournaments and destabilizing grassroots support.

DG: I must say, when you go into a debate with a man doing a PhD thesis on the subject, you know you are going to have to be on the ball! In response to Howard’s point about the rotation of the hon-basho

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